The general gist? A minor update somewhere this year, but the real update won't come until 2014. In the meantime, we'll have to... "Resuming..." ...settle for CardDAV/CalDAV support, some additional HTML5 support, and fixes for Xbox Music metadata. We were promised regular updates and an early access program for enthusiasts - but Microsoft failed to deliver, once more. For all intents and purposes, thanks... "Resuming..." ...to the switch to the Windows NT kernel, the Windows Phone we're using today has very little additional functionality to offer over what we were using on WP7 release day. I've been a Windows Phone user since WP7 release day, but Microsoft has lost me.

People overlook the insane amount of innovation going on in many parts of Microsoft, they have a chokehold on the enterprise sector. They have incredible developer talent in DevDiv pumping out awesome tools. There's really a lot going on in the company.

Its just unfortunate that the thick rhetorical bullshit that gets posted here by some is upvoted into the clouds because Microsoft shit in someone's cornflakes apparently.

You clearly do not understand Microsoft's monopoly. Microsoft is a monopoly because of the intellectual property laws (copyright, patents, trade secrets). Because windows is the most widely used os in the world, and because their software is protected by copyright as well as other ip laws (patents and trade secrets) there are no close substitute to the windows operating system.

Windows has 90-92% market-share with no close substitute (ie a windows like operating system). This allows ms to obtain billions of dollars every year licensing windows and office, and given that ms is a software company it cost pennies to make copies of windows, office, or any other of their software. Also their software is proprietary, meaning there is a lack of interoperability between windows and other operating systems (ie linux, bsd, os x, etc). Take directx for example. It's not cross platform, and since dx is protected by ip there is no reason for ms to make dx cross platform like opengl is, and given that developers prefer to use dx instead of opengl all the gaming support is for Windows. I would say Microsoft has 95% of the gaming support. They show all the signs of a monopoly.

All the criticisms of ms is legit, they have billions of dollars, but they are hardly innovative, they only thing ms innovative in is corruption and vendor lock-in, and making the Xbox one. They sell their software at inflated prices, Windows despite the most widely used is in the world is broken and extremely prone to security risks. And microsoft can get away with these practices because of the intellectual property laws, the source of microsoft's monopoly power.

And of course microsoft shits on your cornflakes, they shit one everyones cornflakes given that you have to use their software.

Keep in mind when I talk about monopolies. All monopolies are created by the government, that's a fact, that cannot be disputed. When monopolies are formed, the government always has something to do with it. In this case of ms they are a monopoly because of ip law. All of Microsoft's licensing agreements are backed up by ip law. You can't fork windows, no one can redistribute a windows like operating system, you can't use their source code, their api, you certainly can't "pirate" windows. Given Microsoft's market power, all the support they can get, and how they can make their software incompatible with the competition, now you how they obtain billions of dollars every year.

What does OS X, Linux, BSD, have in common? They are based off unix, they are unix like operating systems. But the unix-like operating systems only have 8% of the market-share, windows has 90-92% marketshare with no close substitutes.

The only area in which competition in the same product is explicitly permitted is the free software movement. That is why there is a fork of open office (LibreOffice) but there are no fork of ms office, the most widely used office suite in the world. Given Microsoft's market power they can dedicate how the technology in the desktop market will be. Only a monopoly can do that, and that is also called vendor lock-in when the consumer is dependent on a corporation for their needs, but with no viable alternatives to the monopolists product.

Of course you have to use windows, because there are no windows-like operating systems, and Microsoft refuses to make their software compatible with the competition. If software wasn't protected by ip this wouldn't be an issue. Consumers would easily move from one OS to another without the hassle learning a whole different os.